KOSCIUSKO COUNTY, Mich. -- Summer is here, and there’s nothing better than hitting the water. One group in Kosciusko County is helping residents stay safe as they hit the water.
The student team grabs weekly water samples from 16 lakes and seven public beaches around Kosciusko County to measure nutrients in the water, algae content, and to see if there’s any toxins in the water.
“The way that our samples are designed they are taken from a total of 1.7 meters deep, the idea of that being a point where anyone would swim in the lake, so out microcystin and algae samples from the center of the lake are supposed to give us, across the lake, from that depth, this is what people would be swimming in," said Joel Petrie, Student Field Team Leader at the Lilly Center.
Now a big word that caught my attention in there is microcystin. That’s the specific toxin that blue-green algae releases which is known to cause liver problems. Pets actually have a lower tolerance than humans to this toxin.
Petrie said, “Dogs, cats, animals that are in the water, like to lick themselves after they are in the water so they inject that water a lot easier than humans would, so that level that we are looking for is indicative of whether or not it’s safe to be in the water.”
That level is .8 parts per billion for humans and .8 parts per billion for pets, but it isn’t just the students looking out for the community
“We really encourage people to let us know about blooms that they’ll see of algae because we will find very, very, large numbers sometimes. Last year we had a bloom on Big Chapman in one of the channels that was 146 parts per billion, which when the level is 8, it’s pretty significant change," said Petrie.
Dr. Nate Bosch from the Lilly Center has some tips to identify blue-green algae by sight.
“So, blue-green algae will give the water a green paint-like look to it. Sometimes there will be some kind of striping or streaking in the water, not always. It’s never going to be a missy scummy sort of look if you can put a stick in it, raise the stick up and it’s draping over the stick that’s more likely green algae which is a good type of algae not producing toxins. If you put the stick in it all just runs off the stick, or it’s just a layer on the stick then that could be blue-green algae,” said Bosch.
The water samples collected earlier are analyzed in the lab on campus to see levels of toxin and algae, some of the research focuses on what conditions make the blue-green algae produce toxins. But the research done here has applications all around our area.
Bosch said, “While the Lilly Center for Lakes and Streams focuses on Kosciusko County and our over a hundred lakes here and understanding blue green algae and the toxins they produce, the application or the implication of our work really extends to all of Michiana as we learn more about these algae toxin and how to prevent them we’ll be able to use that same knowledge to prevent them from all of our lakes around Michiana.”
The results for the tested lakes in Kosciusko County are released weekly on an email you can sign up for on the Grace College website: About - Lilly Center for Lakes & Streams. If you live elsewhere in Michiana the DNR will be the people to contact about a blue green algae bloom in your body of water.